ISR News Story

Gregorczyk Wins Second L-3 Fellowship

Department of Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) graduate student Keith Gregorczyk, advised by Professor Gary Rubloff (MSE/Institute for Systems Research), has been awarded his second L-3 Graduate Fellowship by Clark School Corporate Partner company L-3 Communications. The fellowship is one of many graduate and undergraduate awards made possible by a $1 million gift to the Clark School by the company last year as part of an effort to increase awareness of itself among Clark School students and encourage recruitment of graduates into its ranks.

Gregorczyk's research focuses on using atomic layer deposition (ALD) for the fabrication of heterostructured nanomaterials. His goal is to show that that this technique, and the materials that can be made using it, will offer significant improvements in the way batteries store and distribute energy. He is currently working on his second paper, which will describe the electrical behavior of the electrodes he and his colleagues fabricate, and is also developing the ALD process that will be used to create energy storage components.

"Getting the fellowship renewed is very exciting," he says. "Energy research is a very competitive area right now and I know I was up against some stiff competition...It was very reaffirming and lets me know I'm on the right track, trying to push the boundaries of how energy devices are fabricated."

L-3 Graduate Research Fellowships annually support Ph.D. candidates in the last three years of studies who conduct research at either the Institute for Systems Research, the Maryland Robotics Center, the University of Maryland Energy Research Center, the Unmanned Autonomous Vehicles Laboratory, the Alfred Gessow Rotorcraft Center, the Center for Advanced Life Cycle Engineering, or research in cybersecurity. The award includes a $25,000 stipend, $1000 to fund travel to conferences, and a five-credit tuition waiver. An additional $4000 in discretionary funds and $5000 to support an undergraduate researcher to work with each fellow is provided to their advisors.